This subreddit is a place for redditors to motivate each other to quit smoking. We welcome anyone who wishes to join in by asking or giving advice, sharing stories, or just encouraging someone who is trying to quit.

I used to be the type of smoker that would quit all the time, and start up again when I got drunk. I've managed cut it down to only smoking when I drink. A pack can sit on my desk for days and I won't even be tempted to smoke, until I get a beer in me. Does anyone have any advice? I'm considering quitting drinking for a while, or going to the bar for just one beer and leaving to help break the habbit...then working my way up to staying longer without smoking.

More willpower is what you need. I understand it's not easy. I drink moderately to heavily and that was the absolute worst for me. You can do this, you just have to make that 100% commitment to not smoking at all. Don't use the beer as a crutch to keep smoking. It's just nicotine playing another mind trick on you.

I'm not sure if taking nicotine in a moment of pressure will help. I project that it will make the phase in which you will crave smoking while drinking longer. Believe me i am at 212 days and i had cravings too. So far that i wouldn't go out for a while because i was afraid it would make me want to smoke. At 212 days definitely i have no cravings when drinking in smoking bars. And it has been like that for a while. I guess the it takes is different from person to person but keeping nicotine on you in my opinion is a bad idea. I couldn't find it now but a while ago someone posted that in between the "regular" drinks he/she would have glasses of water or non-alcoholic drinks. Getting less drunk and thus less uninhibited will help you stay focused in a time when you need focus.

Nevertheless, don't smoke but have fun. No luck needed. You'll do fine.

I agree with you as well. It takes awhile to be able to do it. If you look back in my post history, you'll see I posted pretty much the exact same question. It was one of my biggest fears about quitting smoking. It is gone now and I only get a craving when I'm really stinking drunk.

I am also a heavy drinker, for a while I would just drink at home where I didn't have cigarettes and by the time I was craving a cigarette, I was too drunk to drive anywhere. When I went to bars, I went to a nonsmoking bar that didn't sell cigarettes and I also told all my friends I quit smoking so I would feel guilty if I asked them for a cigarette.

Hello, smoked for ten years and now going strong (i'm 26). Set aside a night in the first two weeks to deliberately get wasted without smoking. I was with a friend who was quitting too, so that made it easier. Got super drunk, played video games, craved a smoke big time, woke up with a big hangover but somehow....somehow it was a glorious hangover, glorious in the knowledge that i just went through a big night without smoking. Went through that same process maybe thrice more, can now have a leisurely beer without any need to smoke. My system probably aint for everyone but it worked for me.

I did the same thing with my girlfriend the first time drinking after quitting. She knew I was quitting and the trick was that we were both too drunk to drive somewhere for me to get cigs. The hangover, believe or not, is much better when you don't chain smoke a thousand cigarettes the night before. Also, my uvula swells a lot less from irritation.

Yeah, this only applies to drinkers but I believe that you are better off being exposed to drinking earlier (first 2 weeks) if you are trying to quit smoking. My personal experience from previous attempts is that I feared the grog and became miserable otherwise.

I actually feel that joining this subreddit and starting a clock is going to help. You've quit for 3 months, I keep reading that the cilia in your lungs grows back after 3 months, are you feeling any better at this point?

I feel better overall. Lung wise there is a noticeable difference, it's not an all of a sudden difference, it gets better gradually. I'm able to walk/run longer without shortness of breath. I can take deeper breaths.

In all honesty, when you quit, you have to want to quit. And I mean really want to quit. I didn't quit for years because of this. I'd think to myself, i know i should quit, but i enjoy smoking too much.

Finally when i decided to quit, i really wanted to quit. I mentally prepared myself saying that i was going to quit, and that it's probably going to suck in the short term. I had quit a few times in the past & always started again, this time i wanted to make it permanent. So anytime I'm in a situation where I'd normally smoke (drinking usually), i have to conscientiously tell myself not to smoke. At first, this is very difficult, after a couple months, it's alot easier; to the point i don't have to think "don't smoke", i just don't smoke.

I have mostly avoided heavy drinking since I quit, so it hasn't come up. But I have had a beer here and there without caving for a cigarette. I think about how accomplished I feel for going this long without one - and think about how disappointed I would be in myself if I broke the streak :) the cravings pass...

For me what helped, was realizing after the 5th fuckup or so how bad it makes a hangover. When your bodies not used to smoke and you drink, the next day on top of a hangover, your throat hurts, you cough up mucus, etc. Then when you're drunk you have to ask, is that worth it?

I was in a small room with my friends drinking and making music. When we took breaks two of them would light up smokes and the smoke would just hover and be in my face. To smell that smoke and be sort of trapped in that room was a huge test but I made it. You need a distraction right at the right time to take your mind off the urge.

Not sure if my input will be too late, but I just told myself 'no pub/night outs for the first month' and as horrible as it's been watching everyone going out having a good time, I know the month break will benefit me in the long run.

Coming up to a month now, I can go back out and hopefully won't need to smoke every hour or so and just enjoy socialising with everyone!

Unless you drink often, I'd say you have no problem. Smoking is pleasure. It's constant smoking that is bad. I knew a fellow who bought a pack before drinking, smoked all he wanted, then threw the pack out at the end of the evening. I wish I could do that

I used to not be able to do that, and its been years of only smoking when I drink. I guess I just have no interest in smoking when I'm hungover and feeling the cigs from the night before, so it was easy to focus on that and only smoke when I drink again.

Hah. my friends and I had an agreement that we could smack eachother in the face if we smoked. Then eventually we started making pacts where we could all smoke one cigarette at the same time, and it all fell apart. Interestingly I stopped drinking as much because I'm studying my ass off in college and just landed an internship, and it's 1000x easier not to smoke. It sounds like you were able to not smoke when you didn't drink also.

I've also found e-cigarettes help alot. Its not the same, but it can turn a drunken night into a night where I eventually break down and have one or two cigarettes, instead of a whole pack. I feel so much better in the morning, I've been carrying an e-cig in my pocket everywhere I go just in case.

I was hoping that the issue with the heavy metals and stuff was solved, should probably do some more research. I'd like to know if the more expensive e-cig/vaporizers with the nicotene oil chamber are better.

It may not be what you want to hear, but for all of beer-drinking's problems: the same capacity for abuse and addiction, the physical health detriments of taking alcohol + the empty calories and chemicals that come with it, you also have the burden of it being a substantial enabler for your other addictions.

I'm not sure what to say. You see your smoking problem, and alcohol is a crutch that's carrying your addiction forward (or an anchor that's keeping you from getting clean, depending on how you look at it). I'm not going to accuse you of anything, but here it looks like bad habits are holding each other up, like a card castle. I don't know how big the castle is. I don't know what your goals are. But, if stopping the use of one abusable drug breaks addiction to one or two, it might be worth the exchange.

Anecdotally, abstaining from caffeine and alcohol, while making me absolutely miserable, has gone a long way toward minimizing the tremendous nicotine withdrawal spikes... as they created many of them.